Graduation and job-hunting can be endlessly stressful for some students, but it doesn’t have to be.

At 3 p.m. Friday, NIU alumna Elena Haliczer will be giving a speech in Reavis Hall Room 211, entitled Impatience is a Virtue: how internships, social media and entrepreneurship will launch your career.

The presentation will focus on the importance of internships as stepping stones to ideal careers and how social media can be used to a student’s advantage when attempting to secure a job, especially when they approach the search with an “entrepreneurial” attitude.

Haliczer made a name for herself when the small business she co-founded, Adaptive Semantics, Inc., was bought by the Huffington Post, where she now works as product director of social news.

After graduating, Haliczer worked under Anne Kaplan, vice president of NIU’s Outreach and Engagement Program. Kaplan said all students should be able to get something out of the talk.

“She knows how to capitalize on her interests and that’s a valuable skill,” Kaplan said. “She represents a new frontier for people in communications.”

Amy Levin, director of Women’s Studies, said Haliczer is coming out to receive the NIU Alumni Association’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which is presented to NIU graduates who have seen success in their professional career. The presentation is part of her visit.

“Her talk will inspire NIU students about how they, too, can move from an internship toward social media entrepreneurship,” Levin said. “It should be exciting for students from many departments, including not only English and Women’s Studies, but also Computer Science, Communication, and Business.”

The event is being sponsored by the First Year Composition Program and the Women’s Studies program. Michael Day, director of the First Year Composition Program, was Haliczer’s ENGL 500 course instructor and is hosting the event this year.

“It would be good for students, especially English students, to see just how far you can go with only your curiosity,” Day said.